


Young, Alive, and Blind

by admiraleinstein



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Other, Pre-Death Noah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-13
Updated: 2015-04-13
Packaged: 2018-03-22 17:00:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3736657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/admiraleinstein/pseuds/admiraleinstein
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noah was his whenever he needed him and he knew it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Young, Alive, and Blind

**Author's Note:**

> Some pre-death Noah stuff because I feel the need to

The tall grass tickled Noah’s arms as he laid still, waiting for something- anything- to happen. Though their ‘quest’ may have seemed glamorous from the outside, the majority consisted of exactly this. Researching and waiting. Every time they found something in writing, they spent an eternity trying to test it, to confirm it, and it was only pushing them two steps back. They weren’t getting any closer and that was a fact. It was a fact that Noah Czerny and Barrington Whelk both knew but neither ever commented on.

Whelk himself was sprawled out directly next to Noah in all his glory, the features of his face revealed only by moonlight. He had this sort of aura about him, a sort of leadership that blindly attracted followers to his cause. Noah was aware that he was Whelk’s sidekick, simply a blind follower and nothing more, but he didn’t mind one bit. Together, they were invincible.

“You know, Czerny,” Whelk’s voice broke out over the silence, his eyes unmoving “A picture would last a hell of a lot longer.”

Noah hadn’t even realized he’d been staring. He made no effort to apologize, only picked up the night vision camera from beside him and wiped the grass from the lens. Pushing himself up onto one elbow, he aimed the camera at his best friend and hit record. “Barrington Whelk,” he started, and only then did his friend turn his gaze, “What is it exactly that we’re doing out here, again?”

A small smirk, hardly recognizable if you didn’t know him well, appeared on the other boys face. “Trying to catch some paranormal shit, that’s what we’re doing.”

“And what have we caught so far?”

“Come on, man, don’t make me say it.”

Noah only sat up higher and stretched his legs, the ends of his red converse barely visible at the bottom of the camera’s frame. Whelk sighed and looked directly into the lens. “Nothing,” he admitted, “Absolutely fucking nothing.”

“But that’s gonna change, right?” Noah’s voice sounded hopeful. “Because you said this place looks promising?”

Then a smile appeared across Whelk’s face. An actual genuine smile. “That’s right, Czerny. I’m feeling pretty good about this one.” With a nod, Noah turned the camera back off and placed it back in the grass, reaching instead for the map. Whelk sat up and held a flashlight for him as he circled their location in red pen and marked the EMF readings inside of it. They were fairly high- higher than most locations they’ve investigated so far- but they were going to need a lot more than that if they were going to find the ley line.

“Maybe we should come back during the day. That way we can actually _see_ the place,” Noah commented.

“You free next weekend, Czerny?”

“Do I _ever_ have plans?”

Something that resembled a laugh escaped Whelk’s throat. Noah was his whenever he needed him and he knew it. A comfortable silence stretched over the pair as they retrieved the rest of their equipment- another night vision camera duct taped to a tree, a voice recorder propped up on a large rock, an EMF detector in the middle of the open field- they weren’t anything if not prepared. The trek back to the mustang was long and dark, but they found safety in each other’s presence, as always. And in the car, Noah turned on some pop punk song that he could tap his thumbs against the steering wheel to and Whelk rolled his eyes, pretending that he hadn’t slowly been starting to like it.

And now they both wish they could, if only for one day- one hour, even- be those people again. So young, so alive, so blind.


End file.
